scheme. All these tanks were built along Bonham Road, and the No. 1 and No. 2 are shown to have been fairly large, with two smaller ones close by, one called after the Surveyor General, Mr. Cleverly, and another named the hospital tank presumably because it formed a source of supply for one or other of the hospitals.
The large area marked as a Mohammedan cemetery is interesting: we have already dealt with the history of this burial ground (see 28-7-33). It was granted by Government to the Mohammedan community for use in 1858, but was resumed by the authorities ten years later, in 1868, when the present cemetery at Happy Valley was given in exchange. The site of this old burial ground at Saiyingpun (as the area is also called) is now known as Breezy Point, and has been partly built over.
We come now to the significance of the name given to Pound Lane. I gather that it arose through the existence hereabouts of a Government pound, or place where strayed cattle and so forth, or animals due for quarantine or confiscation, were interned. Perhaps some reader can confirm this, or amplify the information.
It is to be regretted that very little is known about "The Castle", which exists at the junction of Castle Road and Castle Steps. It is obviously the structure which gave the name to the thoroughfare, and must be a very old building; in appearance it is just like a castle, and is thus a predecessor of the structures we have recently seen erected on Bonham Road and at Repulse Bay! But I would welcome any information about this old "castle" from readers who might know its history.
In As regards Taipingshan district itself, a full note on the subject was published some time ago (see 12-7-33). In the vernacular the name means the Hill of Peace, and the legend is that, in the pre-British days, it was the haunt of notorious pirates who, however, were subdued by a Manchu official, so that the contrast when ordered government supervened led the law-abiding inhabitants to confer its present name on the area. Incidentally, when we search the records of sanitary development of the Colony, Taipingshan gets several black marks for having been, for some years, the most insanitary area, only gradually improved. But that is another story.
I take to-day the final section of the plan of the waterfront which dates back to the early Seventies, and portions of which have been reproduced during the past few weeks. We come now to the extreme western part of the city, embracing the two districts of Shektongtsui and Saiyingpun. Both names have their significance in the vernacular, and the latter is of great historic importance, so we might consider this aspect to begin with.
Shektongtsui means in the Cantonese speech Stone Quarry pit (or Point) which Mr. R.E. Lindsell in his researches on the subject attributes to the presence nearby of old quarries. The same authority points out that Saiyingpun means Western Military Encampment, and here we have a most interesting reference to the original military barracks in Hongkong.
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